Celtic to face St Mirren in semi-final of Scottish Communities League Cup as Hearts will play Inverness

Celtic have been drawn against St Mirren in the semi-final of the Scottish
Communities League Cup, with the game taking place at Hampden.

Capital job: Hearts manager John McGlynn says he does not regret joining the clubPhoto: GETTY

By Telegraph Sport

11:00PM GMT 08 Nov 2012

Crisis-hit Hearts, who on Wednesday warned that their game against St Mirren on Nov 17 could be their last after being presented with a winding-up order over a £450,000 tax debt, were drawn to play Inverness with that match taking place at Easter Road.

The games are to be played on the weekend of Jan 26-27 with the order to be set following consultation with television companies.

Hearts manager John McGlynn claims he has no regrets about taking over in the summer despite the financial crisis now engulfing the club.

The William Hill Scottish Cup holders have been issued with a winding up order by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs over a tax bill of almost £450,000.

Club bosses have urged supporters to find the money to help them come through a critical period.

McGlynn quit Raith Rovers to take over the Tynecastle hotseat in June but does not believe it was the wrong decision in light of the club's problems.

He said: "Not at all. I could not turn the job down.

"If I pop my clogs tomorrow, then I will go as someone who has managed Heart of Midlothian Football Club. There's not many people who can say that.

"I'm very proud to manage Hearts. I wish it wasn't in this situation but I would never regret taking the job."

Hearts have struggled to meet wage bills in the last 12 months and are under an SPL transfer embargo following consecutive late monthly payments to some players and coaches.

McGlynn says he would voluntary delay his wages - and believes his players could follow suit - if the move helped Hearts survive.

He said: "It's not been mentioned yet. We are basically taking it a day at a time and seeing how things go.

"If it did come to that, it has happened recently anyway, and I don't see that being a massive problem to be honest.

"Certainly I would be in favour of delaying if that was going to help.

"I think the players would do anything that is going to help for the long-term benefit of the club."

He added: "It can't be easy on the players if they're finding out that possibly, after the game against St Mirren, they might not have a job.

"It's not easy and it's more critical than other situations when they've not been getting paid.

"But we are employees of the football club, everyone is under contract, and we have to be professional.

"At this minute in time, all the players are paid up to date.

"No one is behind on any payments so we've got to give the football club time to get that money in and pay it and hope we can get through this and bring in as much money as possible."

Hearts are attempting to negotiate a payment plan with HMRC over the matter and have asked fans to buy tickets for forthcoming home matches and invest in a recently-launched share issue.

Those pleas were on Thursday repeated by McGlynn, who said: "There is a £450,000 HMRC tax bill to be paid and the club is struggling to pay it.

"If we don't get that money in, in that period of time - which is obviously quite difficult - then possibly it could be curtains.

"You have to be realistic. The club understands it has to do this to get everyone to try to save the football club.

"There are many Hearts fans out there - and perhaps football fans as well - who might just go and buy a couple of tickets for the St Mirren game just to try to make sure that those 4,700 seats that we've got available can be taken up.

"That would certainly help at least in the short term."

On the prospect of administration, he added: "I've not had any discussions with the board. That's not really my brief to be honest.

"I'm really just concentrating on the Inverness game on Saturday.

"We've got a difficult game and we've been preparing the players this morning with a view to playing in that game and trying to win the game."

Hibernian manager Pat Fenlon would be disappointed if the Edinburgh derby disappeared as a result of Hearts' financial struggles.

Fenlon was reluctant to comment on the situation at Tynecastle, but hopes a repeat of the situation at Rangers can be avoided.

"It happens in football. We've just got to make sure that we're prepared here and how we do things here. We manage that right and we try to prepare this team every week to play football matches.

"That's my job. It's not my job to worry about what goes on at another football club."

Hearts and Hibs are next scheduled to meet in a repeat of the William Hill Scottish Cup final early next month after Monday's draw.

The fourth-round tie on Dec 2 will be the first time the teams have met in the competition since Hearts' 5-1 win in the final at Hampden in May.

Fenlon added: "The cup all the time throws up something special. We're looking forward to it, that's for certain.

"It's a fantastic game, we're at home, but there's a lot of football to be played before then.

"It's about maintaining our focus on making sure we pick up league points and when that comes around the Hearts game normally looks after itself."

Former Hearts defender Alan Maybury, now a player at Hibs, expects the match to take place, despite the troubles at Tynecastle.

Maybury made his Hibs debut in the 1-1 SPL draw at Easter Road, seven years after leaving Hearts following a four-season spell which came to an end in January 2005.

The 34-year-old Irishman said: "I don't know the ins and outs. It's a long time since I played there. I don't know too many of the players. It's a difficult spell for them at the moment.

"It's on the back of everything that's gone on with Rangers. Football clubs are important for the community, for the fans.

"No-one likes to see anyone losing jobs and livelihoods.

"I'll just see how it sorts itself out. These things tend to. They've had a couple of these before and (Vladimir Romanov, Hearts' majority shareholder) found the money to sort it out.

"It's not great that there's these winding up orders being served against them, but in the past he's found a way to sort things out."

On the cup clash and Hibs' run of form which sees them at the top end of the table, Maybury added: "The way it's working out it's probably a bigger game up here than it ever has been."

Kilmarnock have won their appeal over goalkeeper Cammy Bell's red card against Inverness.

The Scottish Football Association confirmed a fast track tribunal had upheld a claim for wrongful dismissal after Bell was sent off for denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity.

The Scotland international will now be able to face Ross County in Saturday's Clydesdale Bank Premier League encounter at Rugby Park.

Former Scotland striker Dougie Freedman has criticised the SFA for not giving Craig Levein the time designated in his contract.

Levein was sacked as Scotland manager on Monday with 20 months remaining on his four-and-a-half year contract, which the SFA say they will continue to honour, although Levein is seeking legal advice.

Levein won just three of 12 competitive matches in charge and the SFA board acted to "relieve him of his duties" with Scotland bottom of their World Cup qualifying group with two points from four matches.

The board has been streamlined since Levein was appointed in December 2009, with Stewart Regan and Campbell Ogilvie since replacing Gordon Smith and George Peat as the leading decision-makers.

But Freedman believes the governing body were morally obliged to allow Levein his full term.